I am now the proud owner of the same coffee-maker used in 9 out of 10 Italian homes, enjoyed by many in Europe and the rest of the world (with millions of units manufactured and sold), with original design dating back as early as 1933 (and now exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the London Design Museum), and known to produce great tasting espresso. I now have in my house as a permanent guest l’omino coi baffi or the one better known as “Little Man in a Moustache”. Finally, I got to try out myself Bialetti’s Moka Express– the company’s first-ever, original Moka Pot. Currently, however, Bialetti has more product lines which are mainly categorized according to its materials: Aluminum (Brikka, Mukka Express, Mini Express, etc.) and Stainless Steel ( Venus, Musa, Cass, etc.)

It is certainly rewarding to own and use Moka Express– a piece of device that is something of a legend…something that, in the coffee drinking world, everybody knows…something of value not just for its aesthetics but also for the quality of coffee it produces. Unlike my previous purchase (a vacuum pot/coffee syphon from Hario), Moka Express is much easier to use and can produce coffee/espresso in just minutes. The brewing process using Moka Express is so simple that its hard to believe it can actually produce a good cup– except for the crema, though (…which the modified version of Moka Express, Brikka, is designed to produce). It is essentially consists of a bottom chamber to hold the water, a middle part to contain the coffee grounds, and the upper chamber to hold the resulting espresso. The noticeable smell of a brewing coffee and the bubbling sound it creates when boiling water, under pressure, force itself up to permeate through the coffee grounds and into the upper chamber, are what I find to be most enticing. It just makes the overall coffee experience much more exciting– you just can feel that you are somehow going back in time and doing an almost century old way of brewing coffee. I’ve been using Moka Express for a couple of times now and happy to share herein the step-by-step process in using it to brew your very own espresso. The process, herein, is presented as a general guide for your reference which you will find later on to be amazingly simple—your coffee/espresso done in just minutes.

Brewing Process (presented in sequence):

Separate the bottom chamber and the coffee pot by gently twisting the Moka Express.

Fill the bottom chamber with cold water. Make sure that the water level do not exceed the required amount as it may overflow into the coffee pot or upper part. Look inside the bottom chamber, you will see a horizontal marker which should guide you as to right amount of water to pour in.

Fill the funnel-shaped filter with ground coffee (do not use too fine ground coffee as it may seep through the filter plate and into the coffee pot). Do not press the ground coffee (as in the case for making espresso using espresso machines), it is enough to use the back of your spoon to gently level-off or flatten your grounds .

Insert funnel to the bottom chamber filled with water.

Screw the upper part or the coffee pot onto the bottom chamber. Do this by strongly gripping the pot but make sure you don’t grip the handle as it may break

Put the pot on your stovetop- may it be electric (flat surface) or gas (open flame). If it’s open flame, please make sure that the flame does not stick out of the bottom chamber. This is just to protect the outer surface of the bottom chamber.

Let the water to boil. You will notice (along with the bubbling sound) that when the water is hot enough and as the pressure builds, the water as it passes through the coffee grounds, will go up to the coffee pot (through the inner column right in the middle of the coffee pot).

When the top of the coffee pot is full of coffee, take the pot away or turn off the heat source.

Now you are ready to enjoy your espresso– done in just few minutes. I absolutely guarranty that you will enjoy it up to the last drop– another enjoyable cup of your hotta cuppa coffee!

2 Responses to “Bialetti Moka Pot: Moka Express Brewing Guide”

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